Prom Queen for Life: The Story of Noelia

This weekend Noelia got married and baptized! Noelia randomly showed up to church my first week here. I guess she had been investigating on and off for a year. I guess she was real hot and cold with the missionaries, but then decided to change. We met her in the church the next week because...honestly I have no idea. When I met her I had no idea what was going on and from some reason that has stuck with me. She just recently started acknowledging my presence so I feel like I don't really know her. But anyway then she moved out and into a new apartment. This is when the real change happened. She started not only reading The Book of Mormon, but studying. When we would go over to her place she would have her books out on the table with a notepad that we had written down questions for her to answer. She would then make us tea and report everything she learned. Then one morning she invited us over for breakfast (which is a lot different here then in America...It was a pasa flora and tea). We read D&C 9:7-9 with her and started talking about the Holy Ghost. She wanted to get baptized but she was living with her boyfriend, Walter. Walter is a less active member who ironically enough has planted a lot of seeds for the missionaries in the past. In fact his last girlfriend broke up with him to get baptized. And the man that baptized Noelia was a friend of Walters-that met the missionaries through Walter. But back to Noelia. She wanted to get baptized but didn't know if she wanted to get married. As we were talking about the Holy Ghost she started crying. I then said, "I know you are feeling the Holy Ghost right now and when you are baptized you can feel that always." She didn't understand how you could feel the Holy Ghost without having the gift of the Holy Ghost. My companion explained this to her and I believe this was the real changing point. The next week after that she announced she was getting married. She is an amazing person! In the past 2 weeks she took out her lip ring and threw away all her immodest clothes without us saying a word to her. She started going on visits with us and does a better job of bearing her testimony then any other member (minus our RM member). Noelia told us that she wants to stand on a mountain top and wave a flag declaring her testimony (we left that Ensign issue with that talk in it). She truly is converted. I know because she has changed her life for the better. And how did she get there? Reading and studying the Book of Mormon.

But more about her wedding. Here they have to get married at, what looks like to me, the DMV. The bride and groom sit at a table with 2 witnesses and a state worker. All the guests stand around the room. The state worker says a few words and then they exchange rings, kiss, and sign some huge book. I would cry if that was my wedding, but they have a big party for when they turn 15 so I guess that's what the girls dream about for years. After the wedding my companion, one of Noelia's friends and I were driven back to Noelia's house to eat pizza...by Noelia's (or perhaps the friend's son, I couldn't tell from the letter and of use of pronouns) 15 year old son who doesn't know how to drive stick (I'm pretty sure he was in 3rd gear the whole time.) The next day was her baptism and it went really well. A lot of ward members came and the members of the Relief Society bought food and "decorated" to celebrate her wedding and baptism.